NEWARK, N. J. -- A 40-year-old computer technician collected a $46 million lottery jackpot Friday, claiming the prize just two days before the ticket would have turned into a worthless scrap of paper in his junk drawer.

Spending plans

Melvin B. Milligan, who described himself as an occasional lottery player, said he would use his winnings to take care of his family, look for a home and take a cruise somewhere. He refused to say whether he had children. Milligan said he will take the $46 million in annual installments over 26 years, rather than a $23.7 million lump sum.

Melvin B. Milligan of Passaic said it took him 10 minutes to find the nearly year-old ticket after hearing news reports about a big unclaimed jackpot that was about to be forfeited.

He had the ticket validated at a convenience store two days before the deadline. And then, to the astonishment of lottery officials, he entrusted the ticket to the U. S. mail and sent it off to lottery headquarters.

Miligan's wife, Kim, smilingly predicted a grim outcome for her husband if the ticket had not been validated in time.

"I guess we'd be out at the jailhouse today," she said. "He'd have been dead."

"I was in shock for a while and just drove around," a beaming Milligan said at a news conference with his 34-year-old wife and acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. "There was an envelope attached to the claim form so I just mailed it in. Somehow, I knew the lottery would get it, and I knew they'd call."

The ticket was postmarked June 7. But lottery officials said that as long as Milligan validated the ticket at the store by the deadline, he was entitled to the prize, no matter how long the mail took to reach Trenton.

The ticket for the multistate Big Game lottery was sold at the Krauszer's convenience store in Montvale on June 9, 2000 the day of the drawing.

If the prize had not been claimed, the money would have gone to New Jersey and the six other states that participate in the game: Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, Virginia and Georgia.